On Monday night’s Hardball on MSNBC, a discussion that was supposed to focus on the demographic problems of the Republican Party quickly veered into a racial attack on the GOP, with host Chris Matthews harping on the “monochromatic” makeup of the attendees at the Republican National Convention in August, and joking about the Republican party’s attitude toward minorities:

You can be a minority at the Republican convention, you’re just not encouraged to gather. You’re not supposed to get together too much. It concerns them.

Matthews has been preoccupied with what he sees as the lack of diversity in the Republican base. He brought it up again yesterday to play the race card, much as he did during the campaign, with not only his “monochromatic” remarks, but also with his accusations that the GOP was trying to impose a “poll tax” by trying to curb voter fraud.

But as we all know, Matthews wasn’t making a racist comment, since only conservatives can be racists.